Welcome to the Mom Squad! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to try and figure out what this parenting thing is all about. I'm not gonna lie, the only answers I have are the mistakes I've already made, the anxiety about the ones I have yet to make, and the unabashed certainty that I am making this up as I go along. So, join the Mom Squad and let's see if we can work it out together.

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Monday, May 26, 2014

The Rebel Alliance

Recently, on my way to work, which happened to be an improv show, I realized I forgot my pants. Let me clarify, I was fully clothed at the time, I forgot my improv pants. Let me clarify again, improv pants are not actually a thing, it's just that in this particular improv show we all have to wear a specific kind of pants. And I didn't have them.

I was rushing to drop teenager #1 at basketball practice on the opposite side of the universe from my house and then off to dinner with a friend before said epic improv show. Oh yeah, and it was rush hour. What to do? I didn't hesitate for a moment, I called my dinner friend and asked him to buy me some pants and I would reimburse him. It felt awkward for a second to ask a friend, who happened to be a man, to pick out and purchase pants for me, and then, suddenly, it wasn't awkward, because he's part of my Rebel Alliance. Okay to clarify one last time, it's not necessarily a "REBEL" alliance, since we are not in fact rebelling against anything, it just helps me to contextualize most things with Star Wars.
We all have a Rebel Alliance. It's made up of Princess Leia's, Obi Wans, Chewbaccas, C3POs, R2D2s and Han Solos. They're the ones who will:

1. Jump into a garbage chute with you

2. Cover you with a poncho when someone close dies

3. Rescue you from the Sarlacc

4. Be wiser than you

5. Repair the Hyper Drive

6. Provide comic relief

7. Risk their lives to release you from carbonite

8. Need you right back

9. Pose in cheesy tableaus with you to cap off significant moments in the ongoing trilogies of your life.

10. Show up in the nick of time to send Darth Vader off course so you can destroy the Death Star with some kicky improv pants from Marshalls.*

(* See below for metaphoric translations to above list)

The Rebel Alliance is made up of a small group of folks who've got each other's backs no matter what. You may not see or talk to them for too long because of time, circumstance or geography, but you know in your bones that they will rise to the call at a moment's notice without question or judgement. They will give you shit later, but they will never judge or keep score. They get how you operate and love you anyway.

As has been embroidered on many a pillow, we all have the family we are born into and the family we choose. The Rebel Alliance is the family you choose. I can't speak for them or for you, but for myself, I am grateful and awed by them. They make the good moments better and the hard moments easier. They are a certainty in an unpredictable world. So, I guess, in a way, you and your Rebel Alliance are rebelling against the Dark Side of loneliness, feeling lost and the ever-shifting ground that we all walk on through our time here. See what I did there? Slap that on a t-shirt with a Precious Moments rendering of Luke, Leia & Han and sell it on Zazzle.

I see teenagers #1 & #2 finding their Rebel Alliances in friends, teachers, other parents and even family. It's impossible for me to express my gratitude towards the members of their alliance. They are the family my boys need when we come up short. I hope my boys continue to build their alliances and they in turn will put it all on the line to destroy the Death Star with improv pants in tow.

*Metaphoric Translations:

1. Hold your hair while you vomit.

2. Is there with wine, chocolate and a movie when you need it most.

3. Wait in the emergency room with you until 2 am.

4. Be wiser than you.

5. Come help you change a flat tire a 11pm in the rain.

6. Provide comic relief.

7. Force you to go to a play, or a on scooter ride or jump out of an airplane because it's time to try something new.

8. Need you right back.

9. Selfies!

10. Seriously, if you need to translate this one you have bigger problems.

About Me

Mary lives and works in Philadelphia as an actress, improviser, director, teacher and writer. She's been a company member of ComedySportz Philadelphia for the past 21 years and works with Figment Theatre Company as a Board member and performer. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts for those interested in credentials. Mary loves, theatre, the movies, believes Improv can save the world if given the chance and knits in lieu of therapy(though with the cost of the yarn and supplies, it probably winds up being just as expensive) She is married with two teenage boys who fill her heart with love, dread, doubt and occasional perspective.